Category Archives: Press Releases

Shady’s back – tell a friend! *dance break* Oops, sorry, got a little excited there for a minute…Anyway, I’m back (for today at least. and later this week. then hopefully forever and ever and ever like that creepy clowndoll you can’t get rid of but being ill makes life rarely go as planned, so we’ll see. right? 😉 ) WHY am I here? To let y’all know that the Portland Film Fest is back!!

Remember AIMY IN A CAGE from last year? The mind-blowingly, amazingly, freakishly, insanely beautiful love child of John Waters and Marc Caro/Jean-Pierre Jeunet (that is currently on Amazon Prime – hint, hint, nudge, nudge)? It was one of the AMAZING pieces from last year’s festival and this year’s line-up promises to be just as interesting! I’ll be covering the festival and reviewing films from it for the next couple of weeks, and there’s just so much diversity going on here – there are films on pinball wizards; accountants dying to be stand-up comedians; Ovarian Psycos; pot growers; guys with allergies to the sun; haunted Mediterranean islands; politically-conscious indie musicals (YES!!!); family dramas; goat farming; gang life vs. street fashion; superstar role models; and MORE…*deep breath* Whew, that’s a lot of film! Obviously, I can’t get to them all, but I’ll be getting to as many films as I can. If you’re IN Portland, however, I HIGHLY suggest you go watch these beauts for yourself!

The fourth annual Portland Film Festival will take place August 29 – September 5, 2016, at Portland’s iconic Laurelhurst Theater, and will include over 20 educational panels & forums, 12 archival presentations, and many parties, events, and industry networking opportunities throughout the week. Established in 2013, the Portland Film Festival is one of Oregon’s largest film festivals, and was named “one of the coolest film festivals in the world,” by MovieMaker Magazine. This year, the festival has programmed a near equal balance of films from men and women, furthering the festival’s commitment to supporting diverse voices and visions.

“This year’s screenings, panels, and programs are an exciting cross-section of icons of classic cinema, engaging new filmmakers, and the best of modern indie film. We’re truly proud to bring this year’s eclectic program to local audiences. We’re also thrilled that, for the first time, all of our films will screen at Portland’s historic Laurelhurst Theatre. This year’s festival will be a not-to- be-missed event,” said Josh Leake, Portland Film Festival Founder and Executive Director.

The festival will present two opening and closing night films (a documentary and a narrative film on each night) and feature films in the following sections: Narrative Competition Feature, Documentary Competition Feature, Narrative Spotlight, Stranger Than Fiction, Tribute: Visionaries, and Milestones. New this year, the festival has created a section to screen classic films from the 70’s and 80’s, and will also be honoring two iconic writers, Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Choke) and William F. Nolan (Logan’s Run).

What’s this? The webseries I co-wrote is FINALLY here? It premiered TODAY?? Indeed it is and indeed it did!

COUNSELING tells the tale of Matt and Tom, who seek the assistance of counselor, Dr. Robbins, in order to become more upstanding members of society. Does it go well? Does it go poorly? Do they become the most upstanding of upstandingest people ever? Well…as I say in my interview:

I really wanted to write two really awful people and make people really like them.

Take that as you will. 😉

So head on over and check out my interview, then watch the premiere episode of COUNSELING below! (RATED R for language and crass humor – aka E., I think you will like)

Remember Volumes of Blood? Remember how much I loved it? Well, P.j. and the gang are back for Round 2 and if you’re so willing, they’d love your help. They have an Indiegogo campaign up right now full of fun perks so if you have a couple of extra dollars and love indie horror, head on over and give ’em a hand!

Um, what? What am I talking about? David Hasselhoff and lightsabers? Am I drunk? (No) Did I fall and hit my head? (Always a reasonable question, as clumsy as I am) Am I simply talking about Rogue Cinema’s cool new retro video feature? (YES!)

What is it exactly? It’s Instantly Dated, hosted by McQ, a look back at olden times (ya know, the 70s and 80s) when things were simpler and cool things happened more frequently (like Hasselhoff playing with lightsabers). Have a look, then go check out the other episodes we’ve got going on in this issue! (E, there’s one about a Star Trek guy being in a Star Wars ripoff!)

From writer/directors Jeremy Scoggins and Matthew Hibbs and Executive Producer P.J. Starks (Volumes of Blood) comes the next generation of super heroes.

The Trio: Knightmare, Dreamcatcher, and Anarchy-X, three ordinary people, called upon to be the vigilante heroes of a city wrought with dark secrets. Plagued with their own personal demons, they bring it upon themselves to become the saviors in a thankless city. Under the watchful eye of their mentor Chronos, who harbors a past of darkness himself, the Trio wages a war on the villains of the city. The sadistic drug lord Animus holds grip on the underworld, while Persephone Masters, a crafty and powerful politician, sits on high in the city and hires the cold and calculating assassin, Strife, to eliminate anyone who stands in her way. The villains play River City like their own personal chess game with the veiled and mysterious Cryofire corporate power quietly plotting all the moves. With the Trio holding on to what justice there is left in the city, they are faced with unexpected challenges both within themselves and throughout the streets as they set about hunting down the men and women who have corrupted their city.

In a city where crime seeps from its pores, the victims must become the answer to their own prayers.

Hey, guys and gals! How goes it in the movie watching world? I don’t do this too often, but I got the heads up about this new movie site called Movli and decided to check it out and well, it’s pretty cool so I thought I’d share. Basically, it’s kind of like IMDB meets Facebook meets Netflix meets Entertainment Weekly meets OK Cupid meets Flipboard meets FUN (the noun, not the band). Neat, huh?

So, you start by making a free account (of course) but the catch is that you have to make an account by signing in either via Facebook, Twitter or Google. I’m not a huge fan of sharing my movie watching habits with everyone I know on social media (Bible Belters not so big on things like “Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter” for some reason 😉 ) but there IS a reason it’s set up that way. (Technically, you can not sign up at all but then all the actions you perform are only saved locally and you run the risk of losing them.) The reason for the social media sign up is, obvis, so you can see what your friends are watching and vice versa. In Movli’s case, however, this is geared towards making your next group movie night easier and more fun by showing you the most compatible films for your group (not for making fun of that poor girl over at Cinema Schminema who had to sit through “The Sinful Dwarf” on a dare…ahem…Isaacs…).

Next up, you get to the down and dirty business of rating every movie you’ve ever seen (and for people like us, that’s A LOT!). Much like Netflix, this is to gather movie recommendations for you. This happens by setting up your personal genome (I had to look that one up – it has to do with genetics – actually the genetic material of an organism. And the word actually works here. I’m a fan. Also hush, I’m a writer and an actress, not a scientist. ;-p ). Anyway, rating movies here doesn’t just bring you movie recommendations but celebrity recommendations as well (actors, directors, writers). And THAT in turn brings you personalized entertainment news. For example, I rated that I was down with “Star Wars” (THE ORIGINALS!!!) and in my entertainment newsfeed were stories about the upcoming Star Wars movies (and how are we all feeling about those anyway? Thoughts? Bueller?). So to sum up – why is rating so much fun here?:

1) If you haven’t seen a movie but you want to, there’s a progress bar you can slide to show how interested in the flick you are, thereby adding it to your Watchlist.

2) Likewise, if you have NO interest in seeing a movie you can blacklist (and oh, have I been having fun doing that – here’s looking at you “Dumb & Dumber 2″…).

3) You also get to rate celebrities – recommended or just from a general line-up. Well, by “rate” I mean you can “Favorite” the ones you like. And when you do THAT, a little bubble appears in the corner of their photo telling you how many upcoming new films they’ll be in. Clicking on THAT bubble brings up a box with the names of the movies and, if applicable, will tell you how much you’re likely to like the film. Totes cool. TOTES.

What else can you do on Movli? There’s a ton more so I’m going to try to keep the rest of this brief so you can go discover the rest of the fun on your own. BUT:

1) You can find other users to follow and make new friends!

2) You have a wall, similar to a Facebook wall, where all your activity shows up (you can totes delete activity from your wall though, so don’t worry Isaacs – when you rate that you loved that Justin Bieber movie, no one will have to know). You can also leave comments there, as can your followers/friends.

3) There’s a database of like 25,000 free streaming movies. Yes, that means a lot of them are classic films, ones in the public domain. But they also have a fair amount of more recent films as well (from the 80s through now).

4) You not only have a Watchlist of movies TO watch but you also have a Watched list of movies you’ve already seen. Now, that is one majorly handy tool, especially for someone as forgetful as myself!

I dunno, guys, I think it’s pretty kickawesome. I mean, I only JUST started exploring a couple of days ago and already I’ve spent enough time on Movli that the dishes have piled up, I haven’t left the house recently and work was missed… *giggles* My only two issues with the site so far have been the aforementioned having to sign in with a social account and I had issues changing my profile picture (it automatically pulls yours from whichever site you use to sign in with). But in the grand scheme of things, not a bad trade-off.

Now, if they’d just add boards like Pinterest so we can organize our movies in whatever crazy ways we’d like to share them with the world (or keep them to ourselves, as the case may be) and maybe add a blogging feature so that we could post our reviews on there, it might very well just be perfect. Or possibly overwhelming…see, this is why people don’t let me be in charge of things. 😉 Regardless, give it a looksie. You might find you like what you see. 🙂 And of course, you can check them out on social media at either Facebook or Twitter!

Party Slashers, written and directed by Carl Bachmann, is currently in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to get this movie funded so I thought I’d share with all of you awesome people so we can continue to support indie film. The film is about a group of high schoolers who team up to survive a Halloween party crashed by undead mass murderers whom were accidentally summoned during a Dungeons & Dragons game. D&D, huh? I never realized what a dangerous game that was. 😉

They have a test scene up on Kickstarter and are rewarding backers custom Grindhouse posters featuring them in it, opportunities to get decapitated in the film, and other cool stuff. (Grindhouse posters? Kickawesome!!) Check out the trailer below and donate a bit if you’re able!

You all know how I love my horror movies and as I got sent this the other day and think it sounds like it’s going to be hella fun, I thought I’d share!

“SURVIVAL IS NOT AN OPTION” IN THE NEW FEMALE-DRIVEN
HORROR FILM ‘SAVE YOURSELF’ SHOOTING THIS SUMMER
Scream Queen Jessica Cameron Set to Star in Ryan M. Andrews’ Latest Horror Film

Following the success of his recent features, SICK, a festival favorite and Black Eve, currently available on DVD, award-winning director Ryan M. Andrews is set to direct his originally scripted Save Yourself this summer. Scream Queen Jessica Cameron will be starring in as well as producing this sexy horror flick along with Producer Emma Sutherland. Overseeing the project are executive producers Pino Halili and Allen Ormerod from multi-award winning studio
Post City Sound Inc.

The plotline for Save Yourself is as follows: En route to L.A., director Crystal Lacroix, along with by-the-numbers producer Dawn Summerville, neurotic writer Lizzy Miller, and star sisters Kim and Sasha Tobin, are riding high after a successful screening of their new horror film. But when Crystal goes missing at a rest stop, their mood suddenly changes. The others, splitting up to search for Crystal, spot an isolated farmhouse and enlist the help of its owners, quickly discovering that appearances are not always what they seem. Life imitates art as all five ladies find themselves pitted against a deranged couple hell-bent on using them for their mysterious research. Who will survive and what will be the fate of their ultimate discovery?

Having worked together in the past, Andrews and Cameron have discussed collaborating on a feature for years. Together they decided that Ryan’s script Save Yourself is the ideal choice. Award winning actor Ry Barrett (Neverlost, Desperate Souls, Antisocial) will join the cast as Save Yourself’s intense villain. This will be the first time Andrews, Cameron and Barret have collaborated since last year’s experimental short film Klymene.

Cameron’s latest film Truth or Dare has won more than two-dozen awards playing the festival circuit. She is also known for such films as the Roger Corman produced Camel Spiders, currently airing on the SyFy channel, and Steven C. Miller’s remake of Silent Night. Save Yourself marks Cameron’s 5th movie in under a year in which she is starring as well as producing.

Cameron was recently quoted as saying “This script is the sexiest and smartest female-driven horror flick that I have had the pleasure to read and I cannot wait to bring it to life with Ryan”. Talking about the female-driven story Andrews says, “I love Jean-Luc Godard’s quote ‘all you need for a movie is a gun and a girl.’ In the same way all you need for a horror is blood and a girl – and we’ve got five girls. It’s definitely going to be fun and sexy, but most importantly the women are not just one-dimensional. There is a lot of depth and development to their characters. And as a die-hard horror fan, I know just how important this is. It can’t just be another pretty face. There needs to be layers there for anyone to care when that face gets smashed.”

Filming begins later this year in Ontario, Canada. Expect more Save Yourself updates including full cast details coming soon! Please “Like” Save Yourself’s Facebook fan page and follow them on Twitter for more up-to-date information about this exciting new horror film!